The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary

The Sexual Outlaw A Documentary In this angry eloquent outcry against the oppression of homosexuals the author of the classic City of Night gives an explosive non fiction account with commentaries of three days and nights in the

Title: The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary

Author: John Rechy

ISBN: 9780802131638

Page: 275

Format: Paperback

In this angry, eloquent outcry against the oppression of homosexuals, the author of the classic City of Night gives an explosive non fiction account, with commentaries, of three days and nights in the sexual underground of Los Angeles in the 1970s the battlefield of the sexual outlaw Using the language and techniqus of the film, Rechy deftly intercuts the despairing,In this angry, eloquent outcry against the oppression of homosexuals, the author of the classic City of Night gives an explosive non fiction account, with commentaries, of three days and nights in the sexual underground of Los Angeles in the 1970s the battlefield of the sexual outlaw Using the language and techniqus of the film, Rechy deftly intercuts the despairing, joyful, and defiant confessions of a male hustler with the chorus of his own subversive reflections on sexual identity and sexual politics, and with stark documentary reports our society directs against homosexuals the only minority against whose existence there are laws.

One thought on “The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary”

Half porn, half autobiography, half polemic - yes, it adds up to too much. But it's a fascinating journey. Rechy is to vanity what Mailer is to misogyny, at the same time the best exemplar and clearest sighted chronicler.

For me, it is immensely surprising how a recently acquired freedom becomes an entitlement. What was thirty or forty years ago a struggle, I take for granted today. The efforts of those who suffered, who were crushed, who lived distorted lives bend in quietly in the result. This book is a protest against oblivion, a reminder of what happened, streaked with personal experiences of what was then a revolutionary way of life. Let's note the sociological aspects: the manners in which society moved all [...]

Rechy seems to me to be unappreciated in our time, perhaps because of his frank use of sex. He has some good ideas in this book but I don’t know that they were all fully explored or that they necessarily stand up over time.The book is a valuable piece of history, one that I think will stand up for generations, showing the pursuit of sex and interaction with police over a period in the seventies. There’s always been the idea, are gay men so promiscuous because they’re men, because they’re [...]

Clancy Signal describes this documentary novel as "honest and informativet pleasant reading" and I would agree with him. The subject matter of homosexual culture and the injustices that the the LA police subjugated homosexuals to in the 1970s is interesting and shocking at the same time. The actions of the LA police during certain incidences, less than forty years ago, that are documented in this book are shocking, disgusting and eye opening. The novel also has an unusual style and format as it [...]

very arresting book but it was so outdated that it seemed antiquated, at least as the AIDS plague and the united states is concerned. I disagree with rechy's argument that based upon being oppressed, gays have the right to embrace promiscuity. that's just like saying that since one is an African-American, they have the right to be alcoholic. the loneliness of deviance doesn't have to put one in life risking situations. Jim could possibly have benefitted from some controversial, cultish 12 step p [...]

Since this is my 69th review at "" I wanted to pick something a bit, urm, sexy - and Rechy's "Sexual Outlaw" is one of my all time favorite books about sex.The book is a documentary about the homosexual scene in Los Angeles in the mid seventies. In fact, it is two narratives in one - the first is a series of vignettes, which together make up the book's main theme, the persecution of the gay lifestyle in the US at that time. Interspersed with this is a kind of third person diary which takes us th [...]

Another world I never knew existed. Street hustlers, young men with their own version of homosexual relations. Retaining self esteem in the face of persecution by police as well as their own well defined sexual preferences as to what they would do, who was "better" than who, who was more beautiful. John Rechy lived the life he portrays. He went on to college, to become a famous (notorious?) writer of a number of books on this type of life living the roles he wrote about. He became an ivy league [...]

Before I write my review let me state I am gay, lest you think my thoughts are based in homophobia. What a dreadful book, I did struggle through to finish it for a book group however it was indeed a struggle. Graphic sex aside there just was nothing to the book, I could not engage with a single character and such plot as there was just did not hold me.

jon read this in college for a class and recommended it. it's easy to see how it was very revolutionary for its time (published in 1977), but i didn't really like it much. basically, it alternates between essay chapters about the state of gay life in LA (mostly about how the cops targeted gays at the expense of other crime) and chapters about "john," a thinly-disguised autobiographical character who is a promiscuous hustler. jon described those chapters as "cock, balls, protein shake, cock, ball [...]

John Rechy's documentary novel chronicles a 3-day "sex hunt" by Jim, a narcissistic hustler living in LA during the mid-1970s. Candid commentary about the persecution of the gay lifestyle in the U.S. is included as vignettes between Jim's story. The book details gay sex before the AIDS era and gives insight to the abusive treatment gays suffered by law enforcement. The novel is more than 30 years old but many themes continue to be relevant in our present time.